Ravens runner Rice touts receiving skill

RAVENS BEAT

Vic Tafur

Updated 11:30 pm, Saturday, February 2, 2013

New Orleans --

The Ravens' Ray Rice has lost carries to rookie Bernard Pierce, but the 5-foot-8 running back is still very dangerous. Especially catching the ball. He was one of only three players in the NFL to run for 1,000 yards and catch for 400 (the other two were Doug Martin and C.J. Spiller).

The Niners will have their hands full Sunday. Just ask him.

"Every team comes in with a game plan," Rice said. "I think when you talk about stopping Ray Rice, you have to stop him in the pass game and you have to stop him in the run game.

"I'm just as dangerous in catching a pass as I am in running a ball. A pass to me isn't anything but a long handoff, so once I get it, I'm good."

The 49ers have had some success against Rice. They held him to 59 yards on 21 carries and three catches for 24 yards in their 16-6 Thanksgiving loss in 2011.

Good luck doing that again, Rice said.

Photo: Scott Halleran, Getty Images

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Ray Rice says, "I'm just as dangerous in catching a pass."

Ray Rice says, "I'm just as dangerous in catching a pass."

Photo: Scott Halleran, Getty Images

Ravens runner Rice touts receiving skill

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"I don't think a lot of linebackers can cover me, not just the 49ers,' " he said. "Linebackers are built a different way. They're built to tackle. They're not built to cover, so when I've got them man-to-man, I'm going to win my fair share. Let's pad up. We've got to pad up to see."

"Obviously, he's underestimating us," Bowman said. "We'll have to go out and show him on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it."

Kruger's never-say-die attitude: Rice is a great athlete, but not one of the Ravens' top three, according to outside linebacker Paul Kruger.

"The top three is me, (quarterback) Tyrod Taylor and (defensive tackle) Haloti Ngata," said Kruger, who is a brother-in-law of Raiders guard Tony Bergstrom. "Tyrod is just explosive. He can dunk a basketball any way you want him to. He's shifty, and he's fast. Haloti is a giant man who can move like he's a running back."

And the 6-foot-4, 270-pound Kruger led the Ravens with nine sacks and then had 2.5 more in the wild-card-round win over Indianapolis.

Figuratively, he is so fast that he outran death twice.

In 2008, Kruger played for the University of Utah and was hosting his brother David for a campus visit. They were confronted by a gang of around 12 youths, and Kruger was stabbed in the stomach and side.

"I could feel my intestines coming through the skin, and when one of my friends, who was a medical student, saw me, it was clear just from his face that I was in a bad way," Kruger said.

Doctors told him he was lucky to be alive, and to forget about playing football again.

A couple of years before that, Kruger had to have his spleen and one kidney removed after a four-wheeler accident.